Alex Smith's Super Bowl will be a sideline experience if all goes well for the 49ers. (AP Photo)

Can he hope to play and now wish ill of his team or its starting quarterback?

All Smith will admit is, he will be ready for whatever the NFL championship game brings.

“It’s difficult in the sense that I get asked about it a lot,” Smith said. “Other than that, it’s the Super Bowl, so it kind of demands the respect. It demands your attention and focus. It’s the biggest game for all of us here. I’m focused on the game plan and playing football, but obviously I’ve been asked about it a lot.”

Smith is talking as if it’s inevitable that he will be moving on after the Super Bowl.

“I don’t know what the options are,” Smith said. “I obviously need to explore those after Sunday. … That’s something I’ll sit down with my family, the people I trust, and if that were the case, to go over something like that.

“I don’t know. I’m putting all this stuff off.”

Smith is signed through 2014, with a combined cap hit of about $18.5 million, but just $1 million of the remaining money is guaranteed, according CSNBayArea.com. He reportedly will ask to be released.